Hello all!
Sorry it has been a while since the last update on here, but I am back with a useful lesson I think :)
I am going to attempt to teach you Welsh mutations. Now even if you still don't understand them after reading this, it will always be here so you can use it as a reference, when mutating words. It is difficult and tricky, but the only way to get your head around it is to keep reading it, and doing practices.
So, shall we start?
There are 3 types of Mutation -
Y Treiglad Meddal - The Soft Mutation
Y Treiglad Trwynol - The Nasal Mutation
Y Treiglad Llaes - The Aspirate Mutation
Initial Letter |
Soft (Voiced) |
Nasal |
Aspirate (Fricative) |
C |
G |
Ngh |
Ch |
P |
B |
Mh |
Ph |
T |
D |
Nh |
Th |
G |
omitted |
Ng | |
B |
F |
M | |
D |
Dd |
N | |
M |
F | | |
Ll |
L | | |
Rh |
R | |
Soft Mutation
Feminine nouns: Welsh nouns come in two genders, but the importance of committing these genders to memory is slightly less obvious when learning than it is in, let's say French. While in French gender dictates a series of changes - which definite article is used (le/la), how adjectives agree (petit/petite)... - in Welsh the gender of the noun has a more subtle, but important role in constructing grammatically correct sentences.
Inserting the definite article y (yr before a vowel, which is welsh is a, e, i, o, u, y and w) causes a feminine noun to undergo a soft mutation.
A popular example is bachgen - boy and merch - girl. After adding the definite article we have y bachgen - the boy but: y ferch - the girl (As can be seen from the table above, soft mutation means m becomes f )
The same occurs when the number un - one is placed preceding the noun. Hence un bachgen - one boy and un ferch - one girl.
Note 'a boy' would be put into Welsh as simply bachgen, there is no equivalent for the indefinite article 'a' in Welsh.
Adjectives following feminine nouns.
Continuing to use the examples above we will see how any adjective following a feminine noun will also undergo soft mutation:
Adding the adjective bach (Eng. little) gives us:- y bachgen bach - the little boy. But y ferch fach - the little girl ( b also mutates to f ).
The difference maybe a little clearer for you in the following two phrases: Prynhawn da - Good afternoon and Noswaith dda - Good evening.
Noswaith (evening) mutates the adjective da (good)→dda because it is feminine, while prynhawn (afternoon) - a masculine noun - does not.
After the majority of prepositions.
Most prepositions, particularly ones with one syllable, require a soft mutation. Some examples would be Croeso i Gymru - Welcome to Wales ( C to G ) and o Gaergybi i Gaerdydd - From Holyhead to Cardiff.
I will go through the prepositions in another lesson so you have them too :)
After certain possessives.
The pronouns for the possessives 'your' and 'his' also require soft mutation. Other possessives require nasal and aspirate mutations.
dy...(di) - your... (familiar)
ei...(fe/o) - his...
If we use the following words, we can get some examples...
tafarn - pub - if we use this, and want to say 'your pub', it will be 'dy dafarn (di)'
llyfr - book - if we use this to say his book 'ei lyfr (fe/o)'.
The pronoun ei also mean 'her', as well as his, but in this case it requires an aspirate mutation, as is seen in the section below.
Have I still got you? I hope this is helping you?!?! Let's carry on...
Aspirate Mutations.
The change of letters for this mutation can be seen in the fourth column of the table ^^
After the pronoun ei (this time meaning her) causes an aspirate mutation.
ei...(hi) = her... -if we use this sentence with words like 'Carreg - Stone' and 'Tad - Father' we can get: Ei Charreg (hi) - her stone, or Ei Thad (hi) - her Father.
Another aspirate mutation happens after the welsh word 'a/ac' which means 'and' ('ac' is used before a vowel, hence it will not cause a mutation).
If we use two words and have 'and' in the middle, let's have a look and see what happens...
Bara = Bread, and Caws = Cheese - so... Bread AND cheese = Bara a chaws.
Trosedd = Crime, and Cosb = Punishment - so... Crime AND Punishment = Trosedd a chosb.
Have you got that one? I do hope so ^u^
Nasal Mutation.
This happens when using the locative 'yn' = 'in' in a sentence, then it causes a mutation. Please don't get this mixed up with the yn used as a particle constructing a verb, as NO mutation occurs here.
Here are some examples of places in Wales...
Porthmadog - Porthmadog = In Porthmadog = Ym Mhorthmadog
Tresaeth - Tresaeth = In Tresaeth = Yn Nhresaeth
Cardiff - Caerdydd = In Cardiff = Yng Nghaerdydd
Bangor - Bangor = In Bangor = Ym Mangor
Dolgellau - Dolgellau = In Dolgellau = Yn Nolgellau
Glanllyn - Glanllyn = In Glanllyn = Yng Nglanllyn
Yn - Before a mutated T or D
Ym - Before a mutated P or B
Yng - Before a mutated C or G
This mutation also happens after fy, meaning "my". If we take the word Fathers - Tadau, and we want to say My Fathers - it becomes fy nhadau. Take a look at the table to see the letter changes. Another example can be seen with the word clothes - dillad = fy nillad, my clothes, and another - brother = brawd, fy mrawd.
Now, in the spoken language, because the nasal mutation occurs so rarely, the word fy can drop out entirely so just leaves us with the word itself. :)
I hope this helps you get closer the the written text of Welsh and the grammar. I would like to see some welsh videos on youtube with you saying some words...maybe? I also hope you like the lesson and that it has not confused you too much, it is just something that will need to be learned, parrot fashion.
Da boch chi!
